Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-08-19
Elevator Accident in New York.

A few minutes before eight O'Clock yester.
Gay morning there was terrific crash heard
by 3 halfdozen persons in the store of G.
Siden5erg & Co., Mercer street, New York.
In an instant dozen women screamed, and
cries for help came from the cellar. Then
it was learned that the elevator had fallen.
II crashed with great force from the second
story of the big building to the cellar. There
were fourteen women in the car at the time.
One was killed, the elevator mans back was
broken, and eleven of the other occupants
of the car were more or less injured. The
fall was about forty feet. The accident was
caused by the breaking of the pinion wheel
of the engine that drives the drum upon
planned reason the safety catches failed to
work, and the car dropped straight to the
bottom with thud The accident caused
so much excitement among the hundreds of
women employed in the building that the
firm dismissed them all and closed the
house for tho day. The elevator had
been recently inspected. The firm of
G.. Sidenberg & Co. employ fully
three hundred hands, mostly girls and
women of varying ages. s. large number of
these have been with the firm for from fif-
teen 10 twenty-five years, and very cordial
relations exist. between the employers and
their employees. The permission that was
given to the latter to use the elevator until
7.45 o'clock in the morning was meant as q
favor TO those to whom advancing age had
made it weary task to climb the many
steep stairways to the upper floors of the
six.story building. The elevator ordinarily
is used for freight, and was not intended for
passenger traffic, but as it was perfectly safe
or supposed to be, it did not occur to any
one to object to the practice. It was in.
spccted less than week ago by the manu-
facturers, and pronounced to be in good con-
dition. O'Neil, the elevator man, was steady
and reliable. Nevertheless, it was due to
MS neglecting an ordinary precaution that a
share at least of the accident is to be ascribed.
The last load Of girls boarded the car at 745
sharp The order of the firm was that those
who came after that hour should walk
up the stairs. 1t is not known precisely
how many boarded the car. The number
is put variousy from fourteen to eighteen
women. At all events it was crowded SO
full that the elevator man found some diff
Guilty in putting up the guard rail, ordina-
caution. The car with its heavy load had
reached the second story, when there was a
sudden jerk, and Immediately it began to
descend, first slowly, then more swiftly,
until it struck the cellar floor with crash
that resounded through the building and
drowned the shreks OF the women. The
safety catches had failed to work when the
engine lost its grip on the drum, possibly
owing to the wobbling of the car, as the
frightened women crowded and pushed each
other on its open and unprotected floor. In
the brief struggle Mira. Lynch was crowded
from the car and thrown headlong out sim
ultaneously with its descent. O'Neil, the
elevator man, suffered similar fate, but
hung to the car and struck the floor with it.
Had the guard rails been in place. the wob
bling of the car might have been in q meas
have worked as they should.